Traffic reporters may rely on traffic information made available by government agencies. Also, online traffic reporting resources may suffer from infrequent updates, data entry errors, or delayed data input. These factors cause the traffic reporter to fail to timely report a major traffic incident or congestion, or continue to report an incident or congestion well after the incident or congestion has been cleared. Therefore, providing real time, accurate traffic information, such as for use in a navigation system (and, in particular, for an autonomous vehicle), is a continuing effort.
To enable automated driving, route validation and planning beyond a vehicle's sensor range is important. For example, it is important to accurately and timely detect low latency road condition changes and abnormalities such as lane closures and slipperiness of the road. Detection of road condition changes or abnormalities is also important for lane positioning as the road structure and identified objects may function as references for matching vehicle sensor perception. Near real-time updates of the road structure and objects may provide correct lane positioning for the automated vehicle navigation system.